DESA Internationals new owners have paid $200 million for the companys operating assets and plan to keep the manufacturer of home heating products in Bowling Green. Florida-based H.I.G. Capitals bid was the highest and best offer of the six bidders involved in the process, said Mike Clevy, DESAs president and CEO. Heavy debt brought about by a recession, production problems with a new product and record warm winter temperatures landed the company in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in June. In its filings, DESA listed assets worth $235 million with $370 million worth of liabilities. We will carry on as a continuing operation, but with half the debt load that we had before, Clevy said. Both DESA and H.I.G. representatives were adamant that the outcome of the bidding process ensures that the company, which supplies brand-name heaters, including Vanguard, Reddy and Remington, will remain in Bowling Green.H.I.G. is a private equity firm that invests in companies that show potential to grow in their present location. It outlasted SPX, an investment conglomerate with operations in Michigan, Illinois and North Carolina, the other bidder in the final part of the bankruptcy auction. Remington Capital, a local firm created by DESA founder Don Vitale and other former senior management partners, was one of the bidders. Vitale said today that confidentiality agreements prevent him from revealing the amount of Remingtons bid. We are investing in private companies and backing their current management teams, said Charles J. Hanemann, H.I.G. partner and managing director. That can only be good for DESA and for your community. The capital firm became familiar with DESA when it sold the company the Heath/Zenith security lighting product line in 1998. We are familiar with DESA and its past success; we want to back DESA; we want to help DESA to succeed and make it the biggest and the best right here (in Bowling Green), Hanemann said.Along with keeping the current management team in place, H.I.G. has agreed to hire all the companys local employees, Hanemann said. DESA has grown to more than 1,000 people at its two Bowling Green locations, including the headquarters on Industrial Drive. It has grown to a worldwide work force of 1,600 since its formation in 1985. While the purchase of DESAs assets mean a new company with a new corporation number will be created, H.I.G. Capital will not change the name.Were not going to change the name; DESA has a good name, Clevy said.